Spero Canton

miami A cut cable that left thousands of telephone customers in downtown Miami without service has been repaired, a BellSouth spokesman said on Friday. The interruption of service occurred when construction workers accidentally severed a phone-line cable Thursday, disabling telephones, faxes and a paging service, said Spero Canton. By 4:30 a.m. Friday, the cable had been repaired and service was restored, he said.

Comcast cable television service is back to normal today following unrelated outages on Monday and Tuesday in the West Palm Beach area, said company spokesman Spero Canton. Monday night's outage, which lasted an hour was due to an electrical problem at Comcast's distribution point at its main West Palm Beach plant, Canton said. Tuesday's 45-minute outage was software-related and did not affect all channels, he said. "It affected the HD and a handful of standard definition channels," Canton said.

More than 60,000 BellSouth customers spent almost two hours Friday night dialing wrong numbers after a software glitch crossed up lines. BellSouth officials called it a "central office failure." What it meant to more than 60,000 customers in South Miami-Dade County was a lot of frustration. "[It) caused anybody who was calling out to get the wrong telephone number," said BellSouth spokesman Spero Canton. "It's very unique. I don't remember the last time [this) happened in South Florida."

Xfinity, Comcast Corp.'s rebranded portfolio of television, phone and Internet services, officially hit the South Florida market Monday. The new name "reflects Comcast's commitment to innovation and represents the future of the company," said Spero Canton, a company spokesman. "Xfinity is the new brand name for Comcast's technology platform, products and services," Canton said Friday. South Florida is among 13 Xfinity markets nationwide. Others are Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and more will be added this year.

Xfinity, Comcast Corp.'s rebranded portfolio of television, phone and Internet services, officially hit the South Florida market Monday. The new name "reflects Comcast's commitment to innovation and represents the future of the company," said Spero Canton, a company spokesman. "Xfinity is the new brand name for Comcast's technology platform, products and services," Canton said Friday. South Florida is among 13 Xfinity markets nationwide. Others are Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and more will be added this year.

Comcast cable television service is back to normal today following unrelated outages on Monday and Tuesday in the West Palm Beach area, said company spokesman Spero Canton. Monday night's outage, which lasted an hour was due to an electrical problem at Comcast's distribution point at its main West Palm Beach plant, Canton said. Tuesday's 45-minute outage was software-related and did not affect all channels, he said. "It affected the HD and a handful of standard definition channels," Canton said.

TALLAHASSEE -- State utility regulators on Tuesday gave the final go-ahead for Southern Bell to offer the Caller ID service to its 4.5 million customers. The new service, which will cost $7.50 for residential customers and $10 for businesses, enables the receiver of a phone call to see the number of a calling party on a display box attached to the phone. The box, ranging in cost up to $80, will be sold through Southern Bell and other telephone outlets. Although the service will first be offered in the northern Florida cities of Havana and Lake City, it will be available to most Southern Bell customers within three months.

MIAMI -- Air traffic controllers at Miami International Airport had telephones working again, and flight operations returned to normal on Friday. More than 200 airliners and more than 20,000 passengers flying in and out of Miami were delayed for up to three hours on Thursday after a construction crew severed an underground telephone cable. Without that cable, the control tower was unable to communicate with the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center, which uses radar to guide planes into South Florida.

Customers who use a combination of BellSouth Corp. services soon will be receiving bills that are easier to follow. The phone giant said earlier this week that it plans on redesigning its phone bills for customers who package their local phone service with Internet or cell-phone packages -- called BellSouth Solutions. About 400,000 people in BellSouth's nine states will start noticing changes this month, said Spero Canton, spokesman for BellSouth. The rest of the company's customers will start seeing changes beginning in the second quarter of 2001 through the first quarter of 2002, he said.

A federal bankruptcy judge Tuesday ruled that Supra Telecom must pay BellSouth Corp. $7.5 million a month for continued use of its network during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The Florida reseller must make a payment of $3.5 million Nov. 7 and pay every Thursday afterward. If Supra fails to make any of the payments, BellSouth can begin disconnecting Supra customers without giving notice to Supra, Judge Robert Mark warned. However, BellSouth would still give notice to Supra customers according to the plan approved by the Florida Public Service Commission.

Call it the angry minority. Or the 2 percent club. BellSouth, Comcast and Adelphia say they have restored service to all but 2 percent of customers in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma. So what's it like to be among such an exclusive group? "Very, very frustrating," according to Maxine Woodworth, who says she is the only person in her North Lauderdale neighborhood whose BellSouth line is not working. She says BellSouth is promising that the line will be fixed by Monday, though at different times she has also been told Nov. 27 and last Sunday.

Supra Telecom, a competitor of BellSouth Corp. for local service in Florida, Wednesday filed a complaint before the Florida Public Service Commission claiming that BellSouth is thwarting competition by not providing high-speed Internet service to Supra voice customers. In the complaint, Supra charged that BellSouth is ignoring a July 1 FPSC order to provide its FastAccess Internet Service, known as DSL, to customers who do not subscribe to its voice service. BellSouth spokesman Spero Canton said his company is appealing that FPSC order in the state Supreme Court.

Supra Telecom Inc. said it'll take 15 to 30 days to contact tens of thousands of people who were left stranded after the company lost its access to the system that lets it sign up new customers and make changes for existing ones. Brian Chaiken, Supra's general counsel, announced at a press teleconference on Monday that the company will be getting in touch with 60,000 to 70,000 new and existing customers, following a Miami federal bankruptcy judge's order last week tha BellSouth Inc. restore Supra's access to the system, known as the Local Exchange Navigation System, LENS.

A federal bankruptcy judge Tuesday ruled that Supra Telecom must pay BellSouth Corp. $7.5 million a month for continued use of its network during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The Florida reseller must make a payment of $3.5 million Nov. 7 and pay every Thursday afterward. If Supra fails to make any of the payments, BellSouth can begin disconnecting Supra customers without giving notice to Supra, Judge Robert Mark warned. However, BellSouth would still give notice to Supra customers according to the plan approved by the Florida Public Service Commission.

Miami-based Supra Telecom said Wednesday it expects to ask a federal court to accept its offer to supply telecom equipment as a bond in a long-running legal battle with BellSouth over unpaid bills, disputed charges and access to the Bell network for new Supra customers. Supra said it is filing a motion in federal district court in Northern Florida to dismiss BellSouth's rejection of the equipment in lieu of a $17.2 million bond. The court has said the bond must be posted before it will require BellSouth to reinstate Supra's access to the Bell system for setting up new customer accounts.

BellSouth Corp. is cutting up to 700 positions -- 172 in Florida -- as the company consolidates its call-center operations. The Southeast's largest local phone service provider said that it will expand 28 call centers while closing 47 others. In Florida, BellSouth will close six call centers, including one located in West Palm Beach, while four others will remain open, said Spero Canton, a BellSouth spokesman. The call centers in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Jacksonville and Pensacola will remain open, he said.

Supra Telecom Inc. said it'll take 15 to 30 days to contact tens of thousands of people who were left stranded after the company lost its access to the system that lets it sign up new customers and make changes for existing ones. Brian Chaiken, Supra's general counsel, announced at a press teleconference on Monday that the company will be getting in touch with 60,000 to 70,000 new and existing customers, following a Miami federal bankruptcy judge's order last week tha BellSouth Inc. restore Supra's access to the system, known as the Local Exchange Navigation System, LENS.

The words "access charge reform" put most people to sleep, except when the words "$200 million in savings" go along with them. That's what AT&T says proposed state legislation will save Florida's consumers. That legislation, which is not yet filed, would cut the rates that long-distance carriers such as AT&T and MCI pay to local phone companies such as GTE and BellSouth on in-state long-distance calls. "Forty cents of every long distance consumer dollar that pays for long distance goes to the local exchange companies [such as BellSouth)

Customers who use a combination of BellSouth Corp. services soon will be receiving bills that are easier to follow. The phone giant said earlier this week that it plans on redesigning its phone bills for customers who package their local phone service with Internet or cell-phone packages -- called BellSouth Solutions. About 400,000 people in BellSouth's nine states will start noticing changes this month, said Spero Canton, spokesman for BellSouth. The rest of the company's customers will start seeing changes beginning in the second quarter of 2001 through the first quarter of 2002, he said.

miami A cut cable that left thousands of telephone customers in downtown Miami without service has been repaired, a BellSouth spokesman said on Friday. The interruption of service occurred when construction workers accidentally severed a phone-line cable Thursday, disabling telephones, faxes and a paging service, said Spero Canton. By 4:30 a.m. Friday, the cable had been repaired and service was restored, he said.